polish
part of speech
noun (polish, polishes); verb (polish, polishes, polished, polishing)
meaning for a pupil
1) (verb) To rub something to make it smooth and shiny. tree →
2) (noun) A cream, liquid or wax used to make things shiny: «shoe polish», «nail polish». tree →
3) (verb) To improve something to make it better: «polish your story». tree →
4) (noun) A smooth shine. Note: «Polish» with a capital P means from Poland. tree →
5) To polish off something is to finish it quickly, such as eating all of a meal. tree →
sense in the lessons
In everyday life: polishing shoes, furniture, silver; nail polish. In school writing, you polish a draft by checking spelling and making it better. Safety: polish and nail polish remover are chemicals — keep them away from small children and fire. Phrases: «shoe polish», «polish off» (finish quickly), «polish up».
examples
- He polished his shoes until they shone. tree →
- Mum put on red nail polish. tree →
- Polish the table with a soft cloth. tree →
- Spend ten minutes polishing your story. tree →
- He polished off the whole pizza. tree →
- The old coin had a nice polish. tree →
- Keep nail polish remover away from little children. tree →
- You must have seen old Kerick polishing off a drove. tree →
note
Mostly uncountable. Trap: «polish» (shiny, said «POL-ish») vs «Polish» (from Poland, said «POH-lish»). «Polish off» means eat or finish fast.
In the corpora
- Example: a new boy in Glasgow speaks English with a Polish accent and does not know that you queue for lunch.
- Oskar moved from Kraków to Dundee, and messages his cousins on WhatsApp in Polish and English, missing the summers they played together.
- A gemstone is a stone people cut and polish because it is beautiful, rare and hard enough to last.
- His hands are as rods of gold set with beryl; his body is as polished ivory overlaid with sapphires.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «polish» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.